74 CommentsTonight, we received a tip regarding a conversation on the official Columbia College Class of 2018 Facebook page. A student posted in the group asking if classmates knew of any Contemporary Civilization sessions taught by “a professor of color.” The post has since inspired a conversation concerning people of color’s (POCs) rights to attend classes taught by professors who are similarly POCs, and the role white students should play in respecting those rights. The conversation appears to be ongoing as of Sunday night.
The screenshots below represent a sampling of the conversation selected on the basis of apparent attention as represented by Facebook likes and responses. The class Facebook page is a private group open mainly to sophomore CC students, restricting us from being able to share a link to the full conversation on the post. Our selection of comments does not reflect the conversation in its entirety and in no way should be interpreted as Bwog’s own editorial viewpoint.
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74 Comments
@Anonymous http://www.wsj.com/article_email/the-rise-of-the-college-crybullies-1447458587-lMyQjAxMTA1MDEzNTUxNDU3Wj
@Anonymous http://claremontindependent.com/we-dissent/
Pretty damn good response letter.
@Anonymous Yes
@Anonymous What a waste of time and effort in seeking a PoC professor. They also clearly do not mean a person of color, they mean someone identical to their identity. A PoC can be many many things. Hispanic, asian, black, native american etc… what this person wants from CC is a affirmation of who they are as a person rather than a class that will challenge their POV of the world, regardless of what a white professor or white student thinks. If a white student is in fact a racist, that sucks, but this is America, he has the right to be racist, as you have the right to want a professor of color. A person drives themselves along the path of racism by ignoring the POV of people different from them. Although it’s fine to find commonalities amongst peers, Columbia University core curriculum is meant to challenge your previous notions and further develop you as a person. If you completely avoid different opinions and POVs how do you expect to live in a multi-cultural world? In the real world where racism actually exists? who knows, maybe you’re the student who is to “woke” his professor and maybe you’re not. But thinking that your POV is inherently superior to another leads you down a faulty logic base. Everyone just needs to chill out. I’m also a PoC. Accept who you are, accept what this world is, then maybe we stand a chance of creating change.
@SarcasmIncoming So…
I don’t want to take a class with a perfectly capable white dude because he’s a colonizer. All white dudes are colonizers.
…you were going to assign me to somebody middle eastern?! Didn’t you know they’re all terrorists? And they’d skew my reading of the Qur’an!
@Stu I had a comment on here that disappeared. Heil Bwog!
@Anonymous “Oh yeah, I totally understand Plato’s natural slave argument.”
No! It’s Aristotle’s natural slave argument.
@hmm... interesting to note that many of the participants on BOTH sides of the debate were non-white. People of color, if you wanna use that lingo. (Oh no, but if you argued against the original poster you’re just COLONIZED colored person………./s)
@Anonymous I do find it a red flag when a school of thought has an explanation (consistent with, and part of, the school of thought) that explains why anyone would disagree with it. Or, rather, explains *away* why that would happen.
@NativeAlum As a Native alum, I’m extremely disappointed that Columbia students have gotten to the point of judging an instructor on the color of their skin rather than her or his intellect. To disregard a professor because of her or his skin color is racism, plain and simple. The need to feel comfortable is understandable but it cannot lead to complacency and the desire to not be challenged academically. As an American Indian, I can safely say that it would have been impossible for me to take CC, let alone all my classes, with Native American professors. Indeed, I would much rather have a professor who is well qualified than one with whom I can identify. What also needs to be discussed are the benefits for the instructors. One professor I had in American History was brilliant and his class was perhaps one of my favorite during my four years at Columbia. Though I learned a lot, I can safely say my professor also learned much about Native American history because of the perspective I brought to the class. Columbia classes are meant to be welcoming but not supposed to make you feel easy or comfortable; they’re goal is to push your’s, and everyone’s, intellectual limits by challenging what you already believe. Personally I left Columbia with far different opinions than when I entered and it is precisely because I was able to learn from those who do not look like me or think how I think. Anything else corrupts academia and falls short of the purpose of institutions like CU.
@Former Student Clickbait bullshit. also completely lost me a heteropatriarchal society. If anybody in the real world spoke like that, i promptly punch them in the fucking face.
@POC saying you're an idiot Boo hoo I’m non-white, so only non-white people who agree with me are allowed to teach me! If you’re white, you’re a patriarchal oppressor! If you’re a POC and you disagree with me, you’re a colonized Uncle Tom!
Who was it that said we should be judged by the content of our character, rather than the color of our skin? Oh, must be a colonized member of “AmeriKKA”.
…you’re a fucking idiot.
@Just saying Would’ve loved to have seen the reaction if a white person had asked for a white professor.
@Anonymous This is a university. You should be mature enough to learn from everybody. You proabably have much more to learn from someone who looks different from you than someone who looks the same. If you wanted to have all black professors, you should have gone to a different school.
@Irony Anyone else find it ironic that POCs seem to want to segregate themselves, black only classes and white only classes, if this were the other way around people would be trying to get the student that made the request expelled, just imagine “I’m a white student that feels uncomfortable learning about slavery from a black professor so can a POC switch spots with me”
@Anonymous I’m a Latina and I think this is all bullshit
I don’t look at everything from a “I’m a person of color, I’m so disadvantaged” context
@Anonymous I was always kinda proud learning about how the US worked from nearly complete racial segregation towards complete integration. We were a great example of a melting pot culture and it was so great to see so many diverse backgrounds in one place. It now saddens me that people, after years of working and fighting for equality, are now fighting again for segregation.
@Anon Interesting. By the same logic, would a female student be justified in requesting a female professor–or to specifically ask male students to give her their spot in a female professor’s class? After all, there is at least as much sexism as there is racism in the CC and LitHum canons.
@what the fuck I love Amerikkka!!! Almost as much as I love staying in my fucking lane. Lolz! College sure is fun!
@A very disappointed alumnus For the sake of both my faith in Columbia’s students and in humanity in general, I so desperately want to believe that the entire 3 part “AmeriKKKa” comment is just pure trolling or satire…but it isn’t. Using the words “STAY IN YOUR LANE” in such a racial context against another classmate, let alone another human being, is one of the most despicable and, indeed, unavoidably racist things I’ve seen a college-aged person say in my life.
@A Straight White Man A few observations:
1) Are people’s CC classes really not addressing racism/colonialism, etc? I feel like my core classes have overwhelmingly fixated on these issues, to the point where it is like “ok, we get it, but can we also learn what the books said?”
I’ve had white professors for both UW and CC, and I felt like these issues were kept quite central in the course. The core professors are supposedly all reading off the same playbook, so how is it that so many other students professors are apparently providing such a totally different experience?
2) Ultimately, what CC is supposed to be teaching is the content of the books and what they meant to the people who wrote them. Their racist legacy is a totally different topic. There are other courses where you can learn all about that, if you so desire. It’s like going into an economics class and complaining that the economics professor isn’t focusing on how economics impacted colonialism and the slave trade. Like, ok, you aren’t wrong, yes it did have that historical context, but that isn’t what this class is about. This class is about learning the theory.
3) Even if you hate how the world around you is constructed, you still have to understand how it came to be in order to be able to fix it.
4) I think we can all at least agree that Columbia hiring a more diverse faculty would be a god thing.
@jm All im finding out from these PC posts is that people want to bring segregation back. Black classes for black kids and white classes for white kids. If a white kid trys to interact with a black teacher we should get out the (internet) lynch mob. Keep it classy guys!
@tru It is absurd that, in 2015, a class about one race is being taught by someone of a different race. It recalls the profound ugliness of the segregation era
@The Salty Seaman I really don’t see a problem with this. Students should be allowed to indicate their race when registering for core classes, and then the administration should place students of color with a professor of the same color. Those professors will be better able to address the experiences of their students.
In fact, we should do this for all classes, and when a professor of color is not available, we should split classes by both race and gender so students don’t need to colearn with their heteropatriarchal cisgendered white imperialist oppressors!
@lol i’m pretty sure the original poster was asian and not a poc anyway…
@The Salty Seaman Asian is a color its called yellow yah dum dum
@The Salty Seaman Or i guess brown if you include south asian. Curse my imperialist oversight!
@the liberal answer to "feminazi" “AmeriKKKa”
ok
@True … both “feminazi” and “AmeriKKKa” (or it’s cousin, “U$A”) tell me, very precisely, “this is a person I really don’t need to take seriously”.
@Anonymous A few quick observations:
-According to many, the white student in this situation would need his/her viewpoint challenged. By the arguments presented above, they are *not* going to get them changed in a class with a non-PoC viewpoint. It’s a net benefit to everyone if they get those assumptions examined. Who has the right to take that away, just so they feel ‘comfortable’? It’s no more valid than if a white student wanted a white professor so *they* could feel ‘comfortable’.
While we’re at it: So you’re uncomfortable. Did anyone come this far to go to a resort they get a diploma? It’s not even a microagression, it’s just “feeling uncomfortable”. Big deal.
-Let’s agree on the “racism is prejudice plus power” definition, and let that be its own thing. Now, bigotry is someone *anyone* can do, power differential be damned.
The suggestion that everyone should only have instructors that look like them is, de facto, advocating segregation. And that, me droogies, is bigoted as hell, no matter who is saying it.
-Apparently, we’ve abandoned ‘Socrates is my friend, but the truth is my best friend’. Fuck that noise, I want a Socrates that looks like me and has the same viewpoint as me, you have no right to debate me, stay in your lane.
-Finally, remember that whatever tactic or phrasing you love will eventually be in the hands of people you hate. That a person in a minority would be pushing for only having to hear from someone of a background they want to hear from, KNOWING that this is the case is pretty damned shocking. And it undercuts any “a variety of voices need to be heard” when we’re in the middle of fighting for the right to not listen to anyone we’ve decided is Wrong. Because they’re the wrong race, no less! It’s not just nearsighted to think that’d never be used for bad purposes, it’s downright blind.
@challenge what if you think Socrates is wrong and the Truth only benefits people who already look and think like Socrates and people use that Truth to hurt people who don’t look like Socrates?
@Anonymous Then, why study anything?
If everything is based on what your background is, and that’s decided before you ever set foot in the classroom, then why set foot in the classroom?
If there’s no objective Truth, then why are we even having this conversation? Coming to campus at all (besides to hang out with people who make us feel good by being like us)? Is it just a stamp to put on resumes?
Besides, none of us look like Socrates. Seriously. None of us lived that life, none of us had that background (no matter how hard some people like to pretend that)… if you’re going for ‘he’s just a DWM’, then…. again, why study anything you aren’t already into?
@challenge boy >then why study anything?
because there are alternatives that can illuminate things that what’s currently in the meta doesn’t
>if there’s no objective Truth, then why are we even having this conversation? Coming to campus at all (besides to hang out with people who make us feel good by being like us)? Is it just a stamp to put on resumes?
for some people, literally yes. some people understand that university has become increasingly capitalistic and exploit it as such, an institution that feeds you a stamp that gets you places in the material world. hanging out with other people is cool too, i can do that in a lot of places (obviously not with the intellectual caliber of people here) but when you want to argue whether objective truth exists, and whether that truth is knowable, perceptible, whether objective truth is singular or dialectical at all, let me know, so that you can stop giving your inputs on racism and instead talk about that
>why study anything you aren’t already into
i don’t. i picked my major. but we go to a school with lots of people, run by lots of people. this makes things complicated. cmon dude, i know you’re smarter than this.
@Anonymous >because there are alternatives that can illuminate things that what’s currently in the meta doesn’t
If you (by your hypothetical in your next post) were only going to listen to people with the “right” viewpoint, then what is _any_ of this besides legionnary standards we march under? That’s not an ‘alternative’.
Furthermore, we’re not here because of someone just wanting into a PoC-taught class. We’re here specifically because someone wanted someone for whom it would have (probably) actually have been an “alternative” to swap off.
And it’s not just “I shouldn’t be in this white guy’s class”, it’s “NO PoC should be asked to do this, so I want a white guy to do it.” It’s zero-sum thinking.
>for some people, literally yes.
Then, with those people, I’d say there’s really no conversation to be had: You get your stuff, I get my stuff, why are we even bothering with anything that’s not gonna give us a paycheck, drop the figleaf.
If you were going for “this is a sham”, that’s it right there, but even moreso with anything to do with civic engagement on-campus. (Anyone protesting anything? “Not my problem, nothing to do with my money.”) You may find that repulsive. I know _I_ do. But absent anything else, what’s to argue against it?
(Though, thank you for the invite, sincerely.)
>I know you’re smarter than this.
AGAIN, with the presumptions!
@challenge boy again again hey, i find you fascinating, possibly more than i do irritable, and i think we could have a much more productive discussion outside of the bwog comments section, where it will be easier for me to not play metaphorical peek-a-boo with metaphorical you and me
hmu @ challengeboii@gmail.com if you’re interested
@Anonymous I appreciate the invite.
Two things though 1) swamped as hell right now, need to take a raincheck and 2) this comment section has had trouble with guys from off-sides (reddit, 4chan etc). All that to say “if you got an email reply up to now, saying it was me, it wasn’t. I’d ignore it.”
@another challenge what if its possible that black people don’t need the help of white people for their liberation. what if its possible that the reason I want a black professor is specifically because I don’t want a white professor? why is that wrong? you already don’t want a black person touching your food, marrying your daughter, smoking your plants, walking your streets. that much is clear by the way society has been operating thus far. so for me, as a black person to be free, what if I’m starting to think that all this shit is a sham? what if I feel like I need a new perspective? What if I don’t feel entitled, but rather, curative? I’m allowed to choose my classes, am I not? Why can’t I curate an experience as well of the classes that I choose the way that society has curated my lived experience?
@Thomas Wow this is dumb and relates to nothing except a bunch of bullshit hypotheticals.
@@ another challenge >what if its possible that black people don’t need the help of white people for their liberation.
Then stop supporting a student asking for a white student to give up their seat. (That’s what happened. Yes, it did. Look it up.)
Intentionally seeking out PoC teachers for a cafeteria PoC-centric curriculum, on the way to Black Graduation… go ahead, have the whole neo-separate-but-equal experience. Just leave other people out of it, and never ask why they never engaged with you, ever again.
> what if its possible that the reason I want a black professor is specifically because I don’t want a white professor?
Then, as established, you’re bigoted. Yes. No power differential to bigotry, as you’re proving.
>you already don’t want a black person touching your food, marrying your daughter, smoking your plants, walking your streets.
If only there was a term for pre-judging someone. Pre-judging? Pre… judice? Something like that. You don’t know me. Your embrace of stereotype is not my problem. And WTF is up with “not wanting a black person touching my food?” You going around putting your thumbs in people’s entrees or something?
> what if I’m starting to think that all this shit is a sham?
Then walk away from Omelas, or just do your deal without asking “allies” to cultivate things for you just-so.
>what if I feel like I need a new perspective?
Then don’t join the fight on the side of someone wanting _exactly the same perspective that they walked in with_, perhaps?
>What if I don’t feel entitled, but rather, curative?
Your feelings? They’re personal. Which means they can’t be argued. So… not arguing it. Feel anything you want. Just don’t expect people to honor it, automatically, simply because you feel it.
The rest is addressed, by my earlier comments.
@challenge boy again >Then stop supporting a student asking for a white student to give up their seat. (That’s what happened. Yes, it did. Look it up.)
I didn’t do this. The fact that you can’t see this as symptomatic of something else is troubling to me but my feelings don’t really matter. also FYI, her asking specifically a white student to do so was tongue in cheek, but Poe’s law applies here. Look it up if you don’t know what that is.
>Then, as established, you’re bigoted. Yes. No power differential to bigotry, as you’re proving.
Wrong.
>If only there was a term for pre-judging someone. Pre-judging? Pre… judice? Something like that. You don’t know me. Your embrace of stereotype is not my problem. And WTF is up with “not wanting a black person touching my food?” You going around putting your thumbs in people’s entrees or something?
You didn’t see my rhetoric as metaphorical. The “you”s in my sentences don’t refer to you specifically. I thought that obvious, but I’m obviously dealing with someone who needs a little more hand holding here.
>Then walk away from Omelas, or just do your deal without asking “allies” to cultivate things for you just-so.
I didn’t ask any allies to do anything. Obviously white people won’t want to give up their power. Obviously they don’t want to be exposed to their shittiness. That’s okay because that makes sense to me. But you need to read a book lmao. You don’t know what university is at all it seems.
>Then don’t join the fight on the side of someone wanting _exactly the same perspective that they walked in with_, perhaps?
I’m not joining any fights. I’m asking for my CC professor and people are telling me no. Why don’t you stop fighting me and leave me alone? (again, the me and you in this is metaphorical, in case you still haven’t realized that)
>Your feelings? They’re personal. Which means they can’t be argued. So… not arguing it. Feel anything you want. Just don’t expect people to honor it, automatically, simply because you feel it.
You don’t have to argue with me to engage with me. You can explore feelings in a non debatable way. Did you know that debate can be used to also listen to perspectives instead of to just win or shove shit down people’s throats. No one has asked you to honor it, but by not honoring / selectively honoring some feelings, its obvious what you’re doing.
@Anonymous >I didn’t do this.
Yet non-metaphorical-you’ve elected to continue this with non-metaphorical me.
>The fact that you can’t see this as is troubling to me but my feelings don’t really matter.
Oh, they certainly matter. They just don’t end a discussion right then and there, as seems to be on the wishlist. I personally see what you’re doing as symptomatic of something else as well, but I’m calling that a draw since then we’d be talking so vaguely only poets could hear us.
>Wrong.
[citation needed]. Not talking about institutional racism. I’m talking about “This person is of the wrong race… nope, nothing I need to listen to, there.” That’s bigotry.
>You didn’t see my rhetoric as metaphorical.
“You walk down my streets…” see, I can’t play that game of it’s-a-metaphor hide and seek with you. Because then, should _I_ deploy it, you’ll take me literally. Besides, why reply to my post at all if you didn’t expect me to take it as a response to me, personally?
(Also, I didn’t really think you wanted to touch my food. It’s okay. That’s kind of icky.)
>Obviously they don’t want to be exposed to their shittiness.
There have not been mass walkouts of CC classes with a focus on imperialism and race issues. So, clearly someone wants to be there. (Unless a PoC wants that seat, in which case they should, apparently, clear out for the greater good.
Anyway, you’re specifically asking ‘what if you thought this shit was a scam’. You continue to be here, and you’re self-evidently not a fool, so my response was “then, you would stop engaging with the scam”.
>Why don’t you stop fighting me and leave me alone? (again, the me and you in this is metaphorical, in case you still haven’t realized that)
Yet you keep responding to me personally. Doing hide and seek, as I said. Personal/metaphorical/personal again. (Peek a boo! I see you…r ploy.)
Basically, ask for any professor you want. Get any prof you want. What I’m even starting about is that nobody has a God-given right to never have their outlook questioned.
Why would you even chase me about this? (Don’t have to reply, I wasn’t talking about you, I was metaphorically talking about recalcitrant people with weak positions. How FUN! I see how this could be popular.)
>You don’t have to argue with me to engage with me.
If no-one of the wrong background could be on your wavelength, how is this even possible or profitable to either of us?
(As per your other post, if someone was only here for the Ivy League Professional Merit Badge, what engagement is there? We’d just be two people whose carts bumped into eachother at the supermarket, while getting our respective stuff.)
> You can explore feelings in a non debatable way.
It also requires that the other person see an interlocutor, not an opponent. As you (all metaphor bob-and-weave aside) have depicted non-PoC outlooks as suspect to you, why would I put myself on that block to be chopped?
At root, it’s like this: I don’t want bad things to happen to people. There are people who believe that, and would want to tell me what I’ve been unsuspectingly doing to hurt others, without realizing it. At this point, I seriously doubt you believe that, so what conversation can there be?
> by not honoring / selectively honoring some feelings, its obvious what you’re doing.
Could you kindly go upvote me on this thread, if you know? I caught a bunch of flak for telling someone to form better arguments because his ‘sick’ feeling was irrelevant to the topic at hand. Just, you know, so’s we’re all consistent.
@Thomas Haha. People like you are so stupid.
@Anonymous “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
@Stu Stop colonizing my mind. Demanding consistency just shows your logic privilege.
@Javale McGee In Disguise? Sounds like a thought process problem to me.
@Editing “Our selection of comments does not reflect the conversation in its entirety and in no way should be interpreted as Bwog’s own editorial viewpoint.”
But by the decision to edit the conversation (which is, admittedly, long), you inevitably have created a narrative by excluding the context. There was a lot more going on in this conversation, and I don’t think it’s right to curate the story based only on “likes” and popularity—only the sophomore class will be able to see the full thing, and I think that’s a disservice to the broader community (not that we ever expected bwog to be hard hitting news, but still).
I think it bears mention that the opposing side in this dialogue was mostly other PoC, a fact that might change the way we interpret the above responses. The opposition wasn’t just coming from a white-privileged viewpoint, and mentioning that DOES change the way we interpret the above exchange, and additionally, the way we understand current conflicts on campus. Not all PoC have the same viewpoint about the current campus conflict, but that doesn’t invalidate the concerns of those who do (whose comments are depicted above). I think displaying this fb thread in full, although at times it can be immature, would illustrate this conflict in a more complete, and nuanced way.
Additionally, there were some other petty fights that changed the tone of the conversation, and omitting these asides again changes the context for the way we interpret the response from both parties. Speaking of—tone matters immensely, and the decision to post particularly heated comments also affects the Bwog’s community response. There were plenty of undisplayed comments that were incoherent and childish, but there were also respectful, well-thought out dialogues between friends.
I hope Bwog posts the entire (long, continuing) conversation, so that anyone who wants to know the full story can (and additionally, maybe with trigger warnings to stay sensitive to the community).
P.S. @lawdy — you can’t be racist against white people; racism = prejudice + power.
@go do your work dont you have some machiavelli to be reading
@Nah. Racism is just prejudice on the basis of race. The “power” shit is just an erroneous addendum to fit the definition into a context that allows it to be conditionally directed.
@Lawdy For a second, I thought that definition was sarcasm. Then I realized: that was assuming too much common sense.
Prejudice + Power my ass. People of any size, shapes, and colors can be racist, and it’s this idiotic definition that lead to the justification of this asinine request.
@Racism (prev. Editing) (You’re right, asshole, I should be doing work but so should the rest of you)
We differentiate racism and prejudice is because white people in America experience prejudice differently because of the different historical and ongoing societal circumstances. The dynamics change based on cultural context (ex. being Chinese in Kentucky vs. being Chinese in mainland China—in one context a slur would be racist and in the other it would be prejudice). We have different words to convey different meanings—is that so nonsensical? Is there not a difference in experience if you are white in America than if you are black in America (or Chinese, Indian, etc.)? That isn’t to say that white people can’t be disempowered in other ways related to socioeconomic status, sex, etc., it just means that white people have privilege with respect to race. If you want to disregard history, it should at least be evident from contemporary stories on police violence.
I don’t think that “idiotic definition” lead to this asinine request. Just because OP (probably) buys into that distinction doesn’t mean that everyone who agrees with the distinction between prejudice and racism agrees with OP.
@Except Racism isn’t defined as it is experienced, it’s defined as it’s delivered. If anyone were to walk up to a tree and say “This tree is racist because it makes me feel discriminated against on the basis of my race,” doesn’t make it so. Racism is defined along the actions of the perpetrator and not the experiences of the perpetrated.
@pedant I’d argue that what you are describing is a difference of degree, not a difference of type.
So, for example, the degree of racism that a poc in America might experience is vastly greater and more all-encompassing than what a white person in America might encounter, but it is still fundamentally the same thing.
@Thomas People like you make me physically ill.
It would be funny if there weren’t so many people willing to entertain the garbage coming out of your mouth.
@Anonymous In the interests of consistency: Your discomfort means nothing. As do your impressions of “people like [whoever Editing is]”.
Also, you’ve got to do better than ‘your arguments are garbage’. Use your grownup words.
@Thomas Yeah because people like you definitely deserved to be responded to.
And i’m sure you’d be willing to listen to any argument i’d make.
Oh wait no you’d be a patronizing asshole.
@Tsk ‘Asshole?’ Ooh. Rubber, glue, etc,
I _said_ “your adult words”.
@a non amus getting started early on the race debates, eh 2018?
by class of 2020, they’ll be staging those College Walk protests and counter-protests during NSOP.
@peak Discourse 10/10 peak Discourse from class of 2018!! congrats to them keep it up!!
@Anonymous This is literally the only comment you ever make. utterly Pointless, 10/10 for fatuous-acceptance.
@peak Discourse if you notice Discourse is an important noun, not an adjective, hence the capitalization. 2/10 try rating again later
also this is peak Discourse. it is clearly a 10/10 discussion. i dont know why you think I (another important noun :)) am being facetious
@Alumnus This is disgusting. Rejecting highly-qualified professors and again making everything about identity. Whatever happened to judging instructors by their teaching ability? I do not deny that individual experiences result in interesting conversations, but this idea that only a racial minority can realize this (and, by extension, that the minority would even agree with identity politics and these racial interpretations of the texts espoused as if terms like “dead white men” are transhistorical and widely accepted beyond the realms of Jezebel and Salon—Hint: I am a queer person of color and I do not agree whatsoever) is wrong, specious, and entitled. But what do I know? I guess my mindset has been “colonized,” right? How pathetic.
@with friends like these... “I guess my mindset has been “colonized,” right?”
I think this is the most offensive part of so many discussions like this – POC who have different opinions are disregarded, patronized, or mocked. What’s good?
@DDK Don’t you know?
Rejecting a teacher based SOLELY on their race isn’t racist when they do it.
Asking Yale to police the Halloween costumes of adults isn’t wrong when they do it, but if anyone suggests to them that maybe they should think about what they’re wearing, that’s slut shaming.
University of Missouri students and faculty assaulting and threatening a student journalist in a public space isn’t “assault,” it’s just enforcing their “safe space.”
Universities are SCREWED as long as this sort of hypocritical thinking goes on unquestioned by faculty and students too afraid of being called “racist” or “bigots” to stand up for free speech, the First Amendment rights of student journalists, and the pursuit of knowledge over the pursuit of pushing some radical agenda.
@Anonymous “Heteropatriarchal” was new. Why even come here if you’re only going to read the classics within the “all this is is racist” frame?
@a non amus i dont have a problem with students critiquing classic texts. thats actually the whole point of CC.
whats insulting is thinking you’ll have a worse experience in CC because your professor isn’t a POC. Come on, you’re about to attend one of the most prestigious universities in the world, so even if your professor is white, they’re going to be very astute and sensitive to multiple points of view. have a little more respect for this school; they don’t pull people off the street to teach ancient Greek philosophy.
@Yeah but There’s a difference between critiquing and categorically dismissing a sect of texts as irrelevant toward your experience. The later mindset usually comes with those who push the trope “dead white men.”
@to be fair I took CC with a white guy and while he was lovely and amazing, we read Du Bois and didn’t even discuss race during that class. How does that even happen?
@a non amus you tell me! im genuinely curious.
like how does one lead a discussion on ‘double consciousness’ without bringing up race? or a discussion on his critique of Booker T. Washington’s view of education for black Americans?
The title of the text is ‘Souls of Black Folk’, for crying out loud! are you sure you’re not exaggerating when you say there was no conversation about race?
@Anonymous That… is actually a difficult trick to pull off. By comparison, discussing the Titanic without mentioning the iceberg would be pretty easy.
@Anonymous Yes, never underestimate the power of WHITE GUILT!
@Lawdy I’m not racist, but can only white people switch with me???
Yea, definitely not racist, lol.
@Common Sense Literally, all she had to do was say something like:
“Hi, as a poc, I see another poc professor as somebody of whom I can get more out of the cc class. Is there anybody willing to switch with me?”.
Seriously, how hard was that?
@The Evil White Man!!! But… but… the evil white man!!
@DDK That would still be racist. If I went and asked to switch to a white professor because I “felt I could get more out of the class with a white professor,” it would be racist and idiotic: a teacher’s color does not dictate their intelligence or anything else. Stop appeasing these morons, or university campuses will continue to become even less rational and even more authoritarian and anti-white.
Has anyone else noticed how this shit only seems to go down on Ivy League universities in the US, quite literally the most “privileged” group of people on earth? Dartmouth, where thugs ran through the library screaming at and assaulting white students for their race, Yale, where a delusional millionaire half white student screamed at her professor to shut up in the name of making Yale a safer space (apparently being surrounded by students screaming at you for something completely rational your wife sent does not make Yale unsafe), or University of Missouri, where thuggish students and Professors like Melissa Click feel that they have a right to assault student journalists and use “muscle” to keep students off of public property (again, assaulting people totally doesn’t make a place unsafe, Halloween costumes do!)